Market conditions and barriers

British Standards

It is recommended that the export stakeholders are aware of the British Standards. Aligning with these standards is especially important when exporting safety equipment, padded furniture, gas and electrical equipment to the UK. Usually these standards are regarded as guiding and not binding standards and the standards will in most cases correspond to the ISO-approvals and should therefore be aligned with EU standards.

Competition-Law and marketing

In the UK free competition is considered vital for the free market. There are extensive legal measures taken in order to protect the free market and decrease price manipulation and unfair trading. The laws are targeted the trade of goods and services and the ways these are described. The competition ACT 1998 has since 1st of March in year 2000 ensured to align British Competition measures with EU standards.

Executing these legal measures is conducted by The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which usually has the ability to intervene when unfair trading is taking place. This office also monitors various trading schemes including trading with credit services, rental, real estate, advertisement, M&A etc.

Public purchases and privatization

Danish export stakeholders who wish to take part in public tendering should usually be represented in the UK through an agent or similar, although this is not mandatory. Public services which are supplied in tenders are increasingly focused around greater projects and investments. This is again in order to the UK government to ensure that the parts of public service tasks which can be privatized are done so in a timely and appropriate manner.

The Justice System

The Justice system in the UK is one of the measures which are significantly differing from the Danish measures in terms of obliging in i.e. a binding contract. In the UK these measures are partly based on the laws and legislation from the Parliament and administrative notices. Also some measures are partly dictated by previous legal ruling and common law. Further in some cases there may be independent and differing legislation in England, Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland.
An example on the above can be the differences between English and Scottish law within business fields such as real estate, legal matters, safety measures and contracts etc.

Import rules

EU-original products and import goods which are preliminary cleared into free circulation in the EU do not impose import duty. Duty collection and customs procedures are executed consistently with the common EU Customs Codes. Import Tariffs in the EU-import is applied in customs clearance of goods which are not in free circulation. VAT is settled in relation to intra-EU trade after the rules in the common EU-Vat arrangement. The same goes for EU-harmonized excise taxes (excise duty).

Non-EU-harmonized excise taxes are charged under the rules of national tax law.

Other import decisions for import of goods from the third world countries follow the common EU rules.

Patent, Trademarks and rights

Decisions concerning product rights are the same as in EU. Rules for product rights such as patent, trademarks and design protection are the same as in EU. Details regarding patent and trademark decisions in EU can be extracted by contacting the Patent and Trademark Office. Counselling regarding intra-EU-trade can be extracted by contacting the Danish Trade Council: https://thetradecouncil.dk/services/eksport

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